The local state trooper facing criminal charges for allegedly exposing himself to a teenage relative of his wife and sending the girl sexually explicit text messages also has been the subject of a number of citizen complaints to state police about his temper, records show.

Trooper Jason M. Willard of Auburn is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older and two counts of open and gross lewdness.

He is seeking to have the charges thrown out, claiming that his estranged wife put the girl up to making the allegations to gain advantage in a custody battle.

The incidents allegedly occurred nearly four years ago while the young woman, then 18 years old, was living with the Willards in Auburn for several months.

Trooper Willard, who has been suspended without pay since his indictment in September, has served as a state trooper since 2002. He was last assigned to the Sturbridge Barracks.

State police internal affairs files obtained by the Telegram & Gazette under the state Public Records Law show that five drivers pulled over by Trooper Willard in different parts of the state at different times during his decade in uniform described him as a bully whose demeanor was angry and aggressive during traffic stops.

A neighbor in Auburn made a similar allegation about his demeanor after an encounter with Trooper Willard outside his home. A seventh complaint involved money that allegedly disappeared from a gun case that had been confiscated.

State police internal affairs investigators backed the trooper in all seven of the civilian complaints, finding that the allegations were either “not sustained,” “unfounded,” or that Trooper Willard was “exonerated.”

An eighth internal affairs investigation into the allegations he exposed himself and made sexual comments to his wife's young relative remains open and therefore was not turned over to the newspaper.

Trooper Willard's defense lawyer, Michael H. Erlich, argued in court Wednesday that the grand jury that indicted his client on the indecent assault and lewdness charges in September heard no testimony about the acrimonious divorce going on at the time between Trooper Willard and his wife, Kelley A. Willard.

Such testimony might have caused the grand jurors to view the allegations with skepticism, he said.

Mr. Erlich noted the girl gave state police investigators a formal statement of her allegations, at Ms. Willard's urging, the day before a custody hearing. The couple, living apart for more than a year now, have four children between the ages of 4 and 9.

Assistant District Attorney Terry J. McLaughlin countered that the young woman, who was 21 at the time of the indictments, first went to State Police with her allegations several weeks before the custody hearing. It was only her formal written statement that came the day before the custody hearing, he said.

Mr. McLaughlin said the young woman told the grand jury that she made her statement to police at the urging of her aunt, Ms. Willard, and that the grand jury had ample opportunity to ask questions about her allegations.

After listening to Mr. Erlich's case for dismissing the charges, Worcester Superior Court Judge John S. McCann asked the defense lawyer, “Doesn't your argument really go to a question of credibility that can be thrashed out at trial?”

Judge McCann said he'd take the request to dismiss the charges under advisement and give his ruling later. A status hearing is scheduled for late August.

In an affidavit filed with the court in February, Trooper Willard denied the charges and described the “devastating impact it had on me to be taken back to the barracks by my captain and stripped of my cruiser and service weapon in addition to being ordered to stay away” from his wife's relative.

The young woman testified that Trooper Willard exposed himself to her a number of times when she lived with the Willards in late 2008, according to a partial transcript of the grand jury testimony included in the defense motion.

“I would say at least six times. He did it between six to 12 times,” she told the grand jury.

The young woman also testified that Trooper Willard sent her sexually explicit text messages and instant messages as well as making sexual comments to her in person. She told the grand jury she did not keep copies of the messages or show them to anyone at the time, according to court records.

State police lawyers heavily redacted records from the seven internal affairs investigations against Trooper Willard before turning them over to the T&G and withheld more than 60 pages of the files in their entirety, according to a log of documents supplied by State Police Chief Legal Counsel Michael B. Halpin.

While the complainants were interviewed and questioned by investigators, Trooper Willard was only required to submit written statements, none of which were provided to the newspaper.

The majority of the civilian complaints dealt with allegations that the trooper had berated or bullied people he came in contact with on the job.

In June 2003, a female driver pulled over on Interstate 91 accused Trooper Willard of getting angry and bullying her, calling his conduct “reprehensible.” The woman failed to follow up with additional information requested by investigators, and the trooper was exonerated a few months later, according to the files.

That December, another driver complained that Trooper Willard was loud and rude toward him during a traffic stop on the Massachusetts Turnpike. A passenger in the car backed up the complainant's account, but Trooper Willard was exonerated again.

“They are probably not used to being spoken to in a firm and authoritarian way in their day-to-day business dealings,” concluded the investigating officer, Sgt. Donald E. Charpentier.

In January 2004, a 48-year-old man pulled over by Trooper Willard on Interstate 91 in Greenfield reported to State Police that the trooper had berated him in an aggressive manner.

“I believe this officer owes me an apology for his conduct,” the man wrote in his letter of complaint.

The investigator characterized the complaint as not sustained.

In January 2007, a driver pulled over on the Mass Pike complained to state police officials that Trooper Willard had been “abrasive, demeaning and condescending” during their interaction. The complaint was later deemed not sustained.

A driver pulled over by Trooper Willard in Auburn in November 2007 complained that his car had been searched by the trooper without his consent or probable cause. When the search of the car and a pat frisk of the driver and his passenger didn't turn up anything, Trooper Willard allegedly used a vulgarity in telling the man to go on his way.

“This was a very unpleasant experience to both my friend and I, and definitely not necessary. I hope this officer will be disciplined appropriately and will no longer violate anybody's basic rights,” wrote the man in his complaint.

After speaking to the complainant at length and reviewing a written statement from Trooper Willard, as well as speaking to Auburn Police officers that had showed up at the traffic stop, the investigating officer exonerated the trooper.

A neighbor of Trooper Willard's filed a complaint in June 2010 alleging he tried to intimidate her after she moved his turtle-shaped “SLOW” sign out of the road, where it was blocking traffic.

The woman told investigators she moved the sign out of the road and onto the Willards' lawn, where upon he “bolted” out of the house armed and in uniform and began yelling at her.

“I was, quite frankly, taken aback by Trooper Willard's aggressive behavior towards me,” the woman wrote in her complaint. “I made the comment to him that he seems to have 'quite an ego issue.' He denied that.”

Although it's not possible to discern precisely what happened next because of extensive redactions, the woman who had filed the complaint called the internal affairs investigator in early July and said Trooper Willard had confronted a person on the street about the complaint and knew the complainant's name. The woman told the investigator she was upset that her name had been revealed to the trooper and said she didn't want to pursue the matter further, according to the report.

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